Aachen with Elizabeth & the dog

see all photos »

Over the Queen’s birthday in May, we went to Den Haag for the Queen’s night celebration and skipped out on the Amsterdam festivities on Queen’s day. Instead, we decided to do a road trip with our friend Elizabeth and her dog Lily. We hopped in their car and made the trek to the western part of Germany. We arrived during some sort of Charlemagne festival. The Germans were out. The weather was fabulous and we just strolled through the city, stopping here and there to see the various sights. We had an encounter with the German police that began with them stating, “We want to control your dog.” This meant they had a law that required Lily to wear a muzzle because she is a Mastiff. Since everything was closed that day due to the celebration, Elizabeth had to pay a fine instead. One of the police officers put the cash in his pocket-thus; we think the fine was a bit questionable. Aachen is a great city. It still has the German flair and the festivities made it an enjoyable trip. The next day, we headed to Maastricht, which is in the Netherlands, but along the way, we meandered through the countryside to view several random castles. These castles were not as grand as some that we have seen, but most of them were still being lived in with farms surrounding them. It was pretty spectacular driving around the middle of these tiny villages to view the setting of small German towns and the castles that we were able to view.